WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry agreed yesterday to testify before the House
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform over the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in
Benghazi, Libya, possibly exacerbating tensions between Republicans over competing inquiries.

In a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the committee’s chairman, the State Department’s
assistant secretary for legislative affairs, Julia Frifield, appeared to go out of her way to pit
Issa’s investigation against a new one being conducted by a select panel appointed by House Speaker
John Boehner of West Chester.

Frifield said that Kerry will testify in June, but that in complying with Issa’s demands, “we
believe this would remove any need for the secretary to appear before the select committee” on the
Benghazi attack, which killed four Americans, including Chris Stevens, the ambassador to Libya.

Aides set the appearance for June 12.

The appointment this month of the special committee on Benghazi, whose chairman is Rep. Trey
Gowdy, R-S.C., has exacerbated the feuding among the three committees that already have
investigated the attacks — the Armed Services, Intelligence and Oversight committees — and has
added tension among the Republican members of those panels.

“The committees have done some good work, but nobody’s brought it all together,” said Rep. Jason
Chaffetz, R-Utah, a close confidant of Gowdy’s. “You have good people coming to different
conclusions.”

Advocates of the new committee have been critical of the other three, arguing that the inquiry
by the Armed Services Committee pulled its punches to protect the military, that the Intelligence
Committee went easy on the CIA because of their close ties, and that the Oversight Committee lacked
the security clearances necessary to examine many of the documents the other two committees had
reviewed.

Frifield declined to make Kerry available on Thursday, the day the chairman had demanded.

“He will be fully occupied with critical diplomatic engagements following the May 25
presidential election in Ukraine,” she wrote, offering June 12 or June 20.

“He will also be engaged in important bilateral and multilateral meetings in preparation for
overseas travel.” She added that testimony by Kerry should negate any need to send him before the
Gowdy committee.

A spokesman for Boehner made it clear that it would not be up to Kerry to decide that.